It was a joy watching the future Loyola Blakefield backcourt duo in Reynolds and Cooper yesterday. From the looks of it, the future is bright for head coach Roger Garfield with his backcourt and while Reynolds brings more of a water bug presence to the floor, Cooper brings good size, a strong frame and a good understanding of how to create space to get his shot off. Making the jump to the varsity level in the BCL/MIAA with undoubtedly be a challenge for both, but Cooper’s ability to navigate through contact and even use it to his advantage was evident with yesterday’s performance. He’s never in a rush and it showed with his poise in his pull-ups off the bounce. Whether it was from beyond the arc or sizing up his man to get to his spots within 15 feet, I never saw Cooper get sped up into a decision. He made good reads in transition as he evaluated the floor and the defense scattering to recover, did a nice job of keeping his man out of the paint and showed some nice vocal leadership for others throughout the duration of the event.

Cooper heads to Loyola Blakefield where he should receive a great opportunity to earn minutes within the rotation. The Team Thrill standout is coming off a nice summer in which he shared on-ball duties, but didn’t allow that to limit his playmaking as a passer. While Cooper is a capable scorer from all three levels of the floor, he’s able to attack closeouts or attack his defender’s top foot to get in the paint, force rotations and quickly find others for clean looks.

-Caught the 2H of his team’s game vs Gilman and liked the flashes as a combo guard that can function as an off-ball shooter or serve as a primary creator for his team in the half court. Cooper understands when he needs to come off screens wide to draw helping bigs to stay with him further away from the screen that was set and also understands the importance of keeping his dribble alive to create those advantage opportunities. Armed with a smooth jumper off the catch or off a live dribble, he has the tools to impact games early in a consistent role with Loyola-Blakefield.